"This financial year the sand casting industry registered an unprecedented growth. This is mainly due to increase in demand from different companies located in the industrial region of Faridabad," said Arun Jindal, secretary, Faridabad Foundry Association.

GROWTH STORY

"In the year 2008-09, the industry grew by 25 percent as compared to 2007- 08," he said. The year 2009-10 also witnessed growth but it was only 15 percent, which Jindal attributed to a lean phase. Vinod Kumar, chairman of The Institute of Indian Foundrymen (IIF) and also a sand caster in Faridabad, said, "The cluster has around 99 foundry units out, of which, around 40 foundry units are registered with the Pollution Control Board, Faridabad. These units are situated in industrial areas such as Saroorpur, old Faridabad and sectors 24 and 25. Along with registered units, unregistered ones are also doing good business."

The cluster exports 15 percent of the total products — both directly and indirectly. "These exports have been to automobile spare companies in countries that include the USA, Europe and Japan," said Kumar, and informed that direct exports constitute five percent and indirect exports constitute the rest 10 percent. "In indirect exports, a company procures the products from the sand casting units and then exports them to other countries," said Kumar.

Industry experts explain that there are three levels of casters. "Units casting up to 700 tonnes per annum are considered to be small, while those up to 1,500 tonnes are medium enterprises. The ones producing more than 1,500 tonnes annually are deemed to be large units," said Jindal. Kumar informed, "The total casting per annum in the cluster is around 90,000 tonnes. Out of which, just over 15 units are casting between 1,000-1,500 tonnes in a year while more than 80 units are casting less than over 500 tonnes per annum."

EMPLOYMENT SCENARIO

According to Rajan Ghai, director, BSL Limited, sand casting is a labour intensive industry. "Procedures such as sand sieving and preparation, making moulds, scrap breaking and loading and unloading of materials, charge men, pouring and fettling are all labour intensive tasks," said Ghai. "Large units employ around 80 workers, medium units employ close to 50 while the small units employ 30 workers. They may be permanent or on contract basis. In total, more than 4,000 workers are employed here," Kumar informed.

Jindal highlighted the profile of the workers: "Out of the total labourers involved, 10 percent include local labourers and the remaining are migrants from states such as Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan. They come in search of work and initially work as helpers. They are not skilled but with time they learn about the operations in a foundry unit and slowly they are promoted."

LABOUR ISSUES

There are some severe issues that are detrimental to the growth of this industry. "The main issues are occupational hazards like high temperature of the work area, poor ventilation and lighting and noise pollution," said Jindal. They are hazardous to the health of the labourers. Ghai highlighted another aspect, "In many foundry units, it has been found that workers don't wear gloves while pouring and separating metals, this despite the fact that personal protection equipments (PPEs) are provided to them. Because of this their productivity declines making them more prone to accidents." There is an urgent need to make workers aware about the pros and cons of their conduct.